Advantages of Paper Books Over Digital Books

Introduction

People should consider the advantages of paper books over digital books. Obviously, digital books have a lot of important characteristics and admirable qualities as well, or they never would have taken off in terms of popularity. However, it’s clear that paper books are still popular today. People are reading them for a reason. It’s worthwhile to take into account all of the different ways in which paper books are still valuable in a digital world.

Physical Contact

Some people find the act of turning pages on books satisfying emotionally, and they will never be able to replicate that experience with digital books purely through scrolling down or clicking. People can often feel as if they’re really accomplishing something each and every time they actually turn the page of a physical book. It’s hard to replicate that experience with a digital book in any format. Books are generally read for entertainment purposes anyway, so all of these little factors still matter.

Artifacts

Digital books can be lost as a result of a technical error or some other glitch. People who upload free eBooks to different sites can take them down, and people might lose them forever. A print book is an artifact. It cannot simply be deleted. While this book can be lost in a lot of other ways, of course, it won’t be lost in the same way that a digital book can be lost. It won’t experience the same issues or problems.

Power Outages

Obviously, from a practical standpoint, print books have some advantages over their digital counterparts just because they cannot fall victim to power outages. People who forget to charge their e-readers and who experience power outages can be left without entertainment of any kind for a while. This situation can be particularly troubling for the people who are trying to find a way to get through their winter vacations.

They might end up without power for days. If they have print books, they’ll usually be fine. Otherwise, they can quickly run into a situation where they’ll have to desperately try to get the power back or run into a lot of other issues.

Environmental Impact

Most e-readers are very energy-efficient. However, while it takes energy to print books in the first place, the actual act of reading an old book will not consume any energy. People who care deeply about monitoring their energy use will often make calculations like this in their own minds. Print books will have a minor environmental impact.